Nogales-Ascarrunz assumed the unusual cat was a member of the species Leopardus tigrinus. Sometimes called tigrinas, oncillas, tigrillos, or little spotted cats, this species was described back in 1775 from a single illustration of an animal seen in French Guiana and was subsequently presumed to exist across Central and South America, including, at the time, Bolivia.
But then in 2019, while she was preparing a booklet about Bolivia's cat species, she realized the cat she'd photographed didn't look like a guidebook reference photo from neighboring Brazil. Her tiger cat had rosettes that were much larger than the ones across the border. "This is so wrong," she thought.
So far, all scientists can say is that L. tilcayo lives in Bolivia's Yungas forest ecoregion, which lies on the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. But as to what these cats eat or get eaten by, how they reproduce, and many other facets of their day-to-day lives, much mystery remains. "So many basic things are not known," says Nogales-Ascarrunz, who is co-lead author of the new study.
But the discovery is monumental, and not just because it's the first new cat discovered since the pampas cat in 1923.
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